And continuing.

Raising a pale, ancient porcelain teacup to her lips, and sipping
softly, Funaho allowed herself to smile. "I think I rather like that
boy," she commented, one eye on the monitor spying on Tenchi's
meeting.

Looks like the Head of the Ministry of Information likes keeping taps on
everyone.

Funaho shrugged, sipping at her tea again, and then adding, "We will
see, I suppose. I think that he will do better than you give him
credit. He is attempting to do this without the aid of Tsunami, when
he could simply ask her to change all as he sees fit. That, more
than anything else, should be respected."

Tenchi: Actually, I never considered that. Thanks, great-grandmother.

Funaho set her teacup down, turning to regard Misaki levelly. "Don't
worry overly much for Sasami. Tsunami is more than capable of taking
care of her." She hid a small smirk behind her wrist, adding, "And
don't frowns

frown

Tenchi helped Ayeka to her feet, sitting the young woman on a smaller
and lower padded chair before returning to the table and regarding
Genoh again. "Ryouko," he said, glancing at the woman, "please take
care of her."

Ryouko activated her energy sword.

"Not like that!" Tenchi added quickly.

"That sounds promising," Tenchi noted when Genoh trailed off. "I want
to give you a property that allows you to at least make some money
to use towards the Council. The gardens are probably useless, but
tell me about the vineyards?"

"The, um, royal vineyards. There are four of them, probably about
seventy kilometers square each. One for something much like your
grapes, one for barley, and two for rice."

One for opium.

"Cool," Tenchi said.

Ryouko warned, "You know, it's going to look a lot like a bribe,
Tenchi. Well, it is, really, but you should probably try and be
sneakier about it."

Tenchi frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. "Okay," he said,
"what would you suggest?"

"Sell the land," Ayeka managed. "For a percentage of whatever profits
the Laruma generate on their trade routes."

That would  work.

Tenchi rose slowly, and nodded at Genoh's deep bow -- echoed by
Karau's. When Genoh straightened from the bow, he added pleasantly,
"And the Laruma never forget their friends."

Genoh: Especially how to stab them in the back.

Karau: Shhh. That's for later.

***

"See?" Funaho said mildly over her tea. "He's just made himself his
first ally!"

And alienated nearly everyone else in the process.

The girl smiled at her friend, answering Rei, "Just thinking, really."

"About Ranma, right?"

Ami blushed very faintly. "Ah, yes," she confessed.

What, her too?

A long, awkward silence followed, as the three boys struggled for
something to speak of. "So," Ryouga managed after the silence had
become almost too much to bear, "how are you doing, Ranma?"

Grimacing, Ranma scratched behind one ear, then shrugged. "Okay, I
guess," he allowed. "Mostly I'm just kinda confused. And tired." He
furrowed his brow in thought, staring at the deck. "You know, I
don't think I've had hardly an entire ten minutes to myself since
this all started."

If that. Not counting times he was rendered unconscious, of course.

Yosho loitered about casually, appearing relaxed, but Washuu
suspected that the man still didn't entirely trust the girls.

I don't either. Usagi's going to be a future dictator of the world. Kill her
now while you have the opportunity.

Herself, Washuu was at a loss for how easily Ranma could forgive
what had been done to him,

When it's either that or death it's not that hard to understand.

 but then, he had gotten along with Ryouko

after her apology -- which, knowing the woman, was clumsy at best --

Ranma is the same way though. He probably understands.

Further analysis revealed that the control program was once part of
something greater -- possibly a primitive artificial intelligence,
but whatever it was, it was lost at that point. Still, the
rudimentary control and access functions would be enough to get
through all of the satellite's security. Another key press captured
the first and second units into the small spinning disks that were
supporting them, folding and compressing the space to fit within a
device the size of a hockey-puck.

Neat.

require being replaced to offset the heat damage -- and to prevent

Nuku brightened instantly, and Yosho nodded, looking pleased. "That's
good, right?"

Unless they've developed a defense against it.

His first stop was one of the hockey-puck sized disk, though he was
faintly aware of the fact that it contained folded space, and
because of that, likely to contain even more minerals and --
hopefully -- tasty metal than most of the things he had found to
eat. Sniffing delicately, he seized the first of the disks in his
teeth, tossed it upwards into the air, and lunged after it,
swallowing it whole with only a small modicum of difficulty.

Oh dear.

"He ate the satellites!" Washuu nearly screamed. "He ate on

one

"And, why the _hell_ is a giant, 'R.C.' emblazoned on the core?"

Hmm. Don't know about that one.

Distracting both of the men, the only occupant of the room paused,
suddenly noticing them. The technician furrowed his brow, and said,
"I happen to _like_ R.C. It's better than Mishima, if you ask me."

Norris sighed, hanging his head. "Oh. You. Never mind, Patterson.
This explains everything."

Durant placed his hands on his hips, scowling at the men. "Who said
you guys could come in here, anyway?"

So he survived after all. And is up to his usual antics.

Durant nodded, shrugging uneasily. "Well, yeah," he said, "though I'm
beginning to think that last paycheck isn't going to be comin'
through, what with Tokyo being a smoking pile of rubble, now... why
do you ask?"

He's addled, but correct.

Ranma grinned, and Norris cocked his head to one side, curious. "What
about the lenses and mirrors?" Patterson asked.

Grunting, Durant waved a hand. "Any decent microscope factory should
have a bunch of good optics. Now, I'm taking

talking

papa-san," she explained clearly. "Papa-san asked Terry to take care
of Nuku-Nuku."

"Well, that explains a bit. So you're Washuu, eh? Nice kid. Your
husband's a little weird, but okay in my book."

"He's not my husband," Washuu noted coolly.

"Oh, hey, I'm a ninety's kinda guy, so that's cool, that's cool.

Heh

***

"What do you suppose that small creature that Hakubi-san kicked means
to Ranma-san?" Ami wondered, frowning.

"Didn't Hotaru say that Ranma called it his partner?" Rei asked.

They should be used to that with Artemis and Luna around.

What was it about the boy that attracted her so? No, she thought. Not
attracted, except as scientific curiosity. He was far, far too young
to attract her interest in any other sense. But what was it that
drew her attention, more so than his 'ki', whatever that was...
There was simply something about him, even if she couldn't pin it down.

Its like reading a Donny Cheng fic :)

Ryu rubbed his wrist as the American soldier took the cuffs off of

can drop that 'of'

"Should fry them instantly," Durant noted. "Not a toy. Why the hell
do you think I put the damn things in automated satellites?"

Heh

on the trigger.

The deafening crack and explosion of light as a blast of light sprang
from the barrel of the weapon answered him better than either Durant
or Washuu could,

Heh. Saw that coming. He should have known better than to fire a possibly
loaded weapon.

"No," Durant said, "there aren't. There's only enough juice in there
for one shot."

Norris frowned dubiously. "Anything else I should know?"

"Yes," Durant said emphatically. "Do not cross the beams."

"Why not?" Norris asked worriedly.

"Trust me, it will be bad," Durant said sternly.

Heh

The girls all blinked in unison, before Rei summed it up by saying,
"I think I'm happier not knowing."

Probably right.

Washuu winced. "I guess it was a bit much to ask for your first
attempt. I think I have something that can help you, since we're
going to run out of room to work here, shortly," she mumbled,
riffling through her pocket, and producing another small handful of
disks. Approaching Ranma, she pressed them into his hands,
explaining, "Hit the green button, then drop them beneath the
missiles. That should make it much easier."

Heh. I'll say.

"I made it myself, when I was at the Academy," Washuu answered,
frowning. Actually, that wasn't completely true -- the entire system
had been replaced, a piece at a time, as she had thought of new ways
to improve it. The essence of the answer was true, however, since
that was where the genesis of the computer had come from... wasn't
it? She couldn't remember back quite far enough to identify what she
had used before.

Probably a mentat. :)

"Yosho-san?" Ryouga asked, looking at the stars more than the man.

"Yes?"

"What do you suppose will happen to us?"

Yosho: You will someday, while I will go on since I am Juraiian.

"There are forces, boy... forces that we cannot even _begin_ to
understand at play here. More than just being men battling monsters,
there's the ever present background of," he paused to spit,
"politics. Even before that, however, these monsters adapt, and
learn. If anything, they'll only grow more dangerous, the more we kill."

True. but there will still be fewer of them since they don't replicate.

The girl raised an eyebrow, lounged as she was in one of the nearer
chairs. "Yes, Tenchi?"

"About those bars you were going to..."

The woman's expression wilted visibly. "What?" she asked, voice
tinged with worry.

"I think you should probably keep going. The information is
invaluable. Just... be very careful about it."

Heh. What a gentleman.

She swallowed a small ball of fear, looking to where the Sacred Flame
traditionally burned again. The fire would have long since been
extinguished, either by... But her mind stopped that train of
thought. Regardless of the cause, she had failed to maintain it, as
was her duty. Certainly, her grandfather would have taken an ember
and tended it until he had a chance to rekindle the flame, but it
was her duty in the last days to maintain the Flame.

And there, ethereal and unreal, wavering in the air as though atop an
invisible altar, the Flame still burned.

Interesting.

But lastly, and perhaps most importantly, there stood a winged man,
trailing fire from the tips of his wings, and more from his hands.

Sounds like Saffron

Retrieving a small staff from the ground at his side, the man held it
aloft, revealing it to be a scythe-like weapon, the blade at an
awkward angle from the staff, and shaped like a crescent moon.

Once again it plays a role in one of your stories.

And on the cold rushed, killing the blackness, and turning the entire
world into a massive, glittering ball of ice.

And all was silent.

Heh. Well that's one way to go about it.

Bit of a cliffhanger there, although it will take another fifty chapters or
so to get them to the point in the dream the way things are going here. :)

Look forward to getting to more later.

D.B. Sommer




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